As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems may be assembled into networked systems that include storage, such as storage area network (SAN) or direct attached storage (DAS) systems. Such networked storage systems typically include components such as storage management devices (e.g., one or more servers), interconnection hardware (e.g., network switches, high speed bus lines) and storage devices (e.g., disk drives). It is often desired that networked storage systems be configured and assembled in a manner that provides data storage redundancy (i.e., allowing for storage of multiple copies of the same data). It is also common that a networked storage system be configured in a manner that addresses current storage needs and that also provides for future scalability, e.g., so that additional storage devices and/or storage management devices may be added over time to increase system performance.
A configuration tool is an algorithm program employed to size a networked system solution (such as networked storage system) for a user. Such a configuration tool operates by having a user describe the requirements of the networked system solution by answering a set of questions (e.g., processor utilization, response time, storage, database size, transaction ratio, type of databases, input/output (IO) throughput, etc.), after which the configuration tool translates the requirements to a particular system configuration for the solution. Examples of such configuration tools are the Dell SQL Advisor Tool, and the Dell Oracle Advisor tool.